Tall Ships Challenge, coming to Bay City in 2010, is now a race to protect the Great Lakes

Amy E. Voigt | The Bay City TimesThe Pride of Baltimore II passes under Independence Bridge in Bay City in 2003.The environment will take center stage at next year’s Tall Ship Celebration along Bay City’s waterfront.

The local maritime heritage festival, from July 16-18, is an offshoot of the 2010 Tall Ships Challenge, a race through the Great Lakes that’s being sponsored next year by Great Lakes United, an international environmental group.

The organization will use the tall ship events to educate people about water issues and develop a model conservation plan required by the Great Lakes Compact, an international agreement which restricts large-scale withdrawals of water from the lakes.

“As part of our message, we’re really talking about it as a race to protect the Great Lakes,” said Brent Gibson, communications director for Great Lakes United.

The organization will set up a large tent at each stop on the tour, and
invite local environmental organizations to use the space to promote
their missions.

“We’ve closed the door with an international agreement,” Gibson said of
the compact. “Now is really time to put our house in order.

“The biggest threat to the Great Lakes is us. It’s our use of the water
that in the end is going to cause the most damage and has caused the
most damage in the past.”

Organizers of the Tall Ship Celebration in Bay City say Great Lakes
United is a perfect fit for the event, and will help bring new focus to
protecting the Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes.

“We are all very concerned about the environment, and investigating new
sources of energy,” said Shirley Roberts, producer of the local Tall
Ship Celebration.

“What better way to showcase those efforts than building them around a series of tall ships events in the Great Lakes?”

“I would venture to guess that tall ship sailing is one of the earliest forms of wind energy, is it not?”

From 10 to 12 vessels are expected to visit Bay City during the Tall
Ship Celebration, but contracts haven’t been finalized yet, Roberts
said.

BaySail, a Bay City nonprofit which operates two Appledore schooners
for student and adult educational programs on the Saginaw River and
Bay, will be part of the Tall Ships Challenge and plans to visit most
ports on the schedule, said Roger Nugent, BaySail executive director.

The 2010 challenge schedule, from June through August, includes stops
in Montreal, Toronto, Cleveland, Bay City, Duluth, Green Bay and
Chicago.

BaySail has taken and displayed the results of local water samples
during stops at other ports in the past, and plans to do that again
next year. The displays show levels of phosphorus, nitrates and
nitrites, acidity and dissolved oxygen.

“We’ve found that the local population is tremendously interested to
see what sort of results we get from their water,” Nugent said.

“Most of them know that their drinking water comes from the lake if
they live on the lake,” but people further inland aren’t necessarily as
aware of that.

Next year, BaySail plans to pull native and invasive fish from Saginaw
Bay and display them in a tank on shore during the Tall Ship
Celebration. The group is working to obtain a trawling permit.

“I think this is a partnership that has been a long time coming,”
Nugent said. “It’s a natural fit for what a lot of the ships do and
it’s a natural fit for a waterfront event ...

“We always have to be reminded, this isn’t just something to be exploited, it’s something to be taken care of.”

Gibson said his group will encourage people to take individual actions
to help conserve water, “and realize that small activities can make a
difference when multiplied across the community.”

That includes installing water-conserving appliances and fixtures in homes, and using less water for watering lawns and gardens.

“You have water that’s clean enough to drink and we spray it on our
lawns every summer,” Gibson said. “We need to use water more
responsibly,” such as using rain barrels to collect water for gardens.

“It’s about rethinking how we as communities use our water.”

Communities like Bay City have outdated infrastructure, for instance,
and putting less water into wastewater treatment systems can help
reduce sewage overflows, Gibson noted.

“Canadians and Americans are the worst water wasters in the world,” he
said. “Compared to other developed countries, we use twice to eight
times as much water per person.